that we had come into this town trusting none but ourselves,"
Archie said, and Hiram cried much as though the words irritated him:

"Since we are come, and since we have given our secret to another, there
is no good sense in harking back to what might have been done. We have
set our faces toward Silas, and so long as we remain alive and free they
are not to be turned from the goal. Instead of sitting here conjuring up
old women's fancies which can do nothing save make the heart faint,
suppose we follow Master Lord's advice and get a night's rest, for no
one may say when we shall have another such opportunity?"

After this long speech Hiram set the example by throwing himself down on
one of the beds of straw, and we lads soon followed him, for it was
disheartening to sit there giving words to our fears and doubts when we
were at the mercy of the man we distrusted.

How long I slept after my eyes were closed in uneasy slumber, it is
impossible for me to say; but looking back at the matter afterward I
fancied at least three hours had passed since we entered this cellar,
when the sound of loud voices in the room above brought the four of us
to our feet as if moved by a single spring of steel.

The floor was of roughly hewn planks, looking, so far as one might see
by the light of the lantern, to be very heavy, and we who were in the
cellar could not distinguish words spoken in an ordinary tone; but now
so excited and apparently angry were the speakers, that we could catch a
word here and there, although not in sufficient numbers as to give any
inkling to the trend of the conversation.

It seemed to me, judging from the sounds, as if there were three or
four in the room just over our heads, and that all were on the eve of a
quarrel--fight would be the better word--so menacing were some of the
tones.

It was evident Master Lord had been expecting there would be trouble
before morning in this home of his, else why had he warned us against
making any outcry or movement if we heard aught that might alarm? Surely
his angry visitors could hardly be friends of the Cause, for they would
not dare raise their voices so high lest the attention of the patrol be
attracted, and if they were not of our people, why was this man, so
greatly to be trusted by us "rebels," having any connection with them?

Before we had been awake three minutes came a clattering as if the table
was overturned, and I distinguished sounds betokening the spli